The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is proposing to fine Westinghouse Electric
Corporation $13,750 for violations of NRC requirements at the company's commercial nuclear
fuel facility in Columbia, South Carolina.

The plant manufactures nuclear fuel for use in civilian nuclear power plants.

The proposed enforcement action results from an NRC inspection conducted August 25 to 29 at
the plant to review circumstances surrounding June 23 and August 25 events involving failures
of controls designed to prevent an inadvertent criticality, or nuclear chain reaction, at the facility.
As a result of the events, Westinghouse staff discovered that various vessels used to process
nuclear material were larger than assumed in the criticality safety analysis, and therefore one of
the safety controls designed to prevent an accidental criticality was not present.

The NRC inspection revealed significant weaknesses with Westinghouse's implementation of its
nuclear criticality safety program. NRC intervention was necessary to identify the scope and
magnitude of the problems and to ensure that appropriate corrective actions were taken to
establish that the existing plant conditions matched the safety conditions established in the
facility's license.

In notifying Westinghouse of the proposed fine, NRC stated: "These violations are significant
because they substantially degraded the approved processes in the license used to establish and
maintain the safety program for processing SNM [special nuclear material] and are indicative of
a significant lack of attention or carelessness towards licensed responsibilities."

Westinghouse has 30 days to pay the civil penalty or protest its imposition.